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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Layered potato crisp...

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to come home to a big comforting plate of mashed potatoes for dinner? Maybe it's just us and the day we had today, but the thought of having a dish like that tonight really sounded appealing.

We decided to step up ordinary mashed potatoes and made this Two-Tone Mashed Potato Crisp for our meal this evening. I know it's going to all end up in the same place and it may seem overly fussy, but we did a little extra work to ensure the layers would stay distinct. This means we cooked the sweet potatoes and buttery Yukon Golds in separate pots - in the end, this was an even better idea as I found that the sweet potatoes actually cooked a bit quicker. Once the potato cubes were tender, we drained them and put them back into the hot pot (with the burner turned off!). Placing them back into the pots, rather than into a separate bowl, allows the potatoes to evaporate any excess cooking liquid so they will be nice and fluffy when you mash them.

For a pleasant tang, sour cream is added with the rest of your typical mashed potato ingredients. If you think ahead far enough, take the milk, sour cream and butter out from the refrigerator to take the chill off - I find the texture of mashed taters is a bit better when the rest of the ingredients are not icy cold. An extra interesting note into both potatoes comes from a dash of fresh grated nutmeg. If you are so inclined, once the potatoes have been layered into the baking dish, you could stop at this point, cover and refrigerate to make these a day ahead of time. You will then want to pop the dish into a microwave for a few minutes to start the process of heating them through.

Before the potatoes go into the oven, they are topped with a mixture of crusty bread, fresh parsley and melted butter that has been buzzed together in a food processor. Baked until the topping is crisped and browned, this casserole will serve best when it has cooled down slightly. You could certainly present it right out of the oven, but it will not keep its shape when you portion it out if it is still pipping hot. With the smooth distinct layers underneath the golden crust, the flavor of the potatoes did not compete with each other and melded quite well! While this was probably meant to be served as a side dish, we went ahead and just divvied it out into bigger portions, putting us into a much needed carb-induced coma.